Chapter 1

I waited and gazed at the prison gates, the same gates which I saw four years ago from the outside. The gates started to open, and I anticipated to see what my future holds on the other side.

I turned to Mr Williams, the prison Warden, beside me and asked, “How did I destroy everything and the people I loved?”

He turned to look at me with a reassuring stare and said, “Jack, when those doors open everything will be OK. Take my word for it.”

He smiled while watching the doors open with me, waiting in anticipation to see what was going to happen.

Let me start from the beginning. You have to go at least six years back to understand how everything I worked for all those years, I managed to lose overnight.

We formerly lived in Liverpool, in the north of England. But as the company my dad worked for was moving to the South-East of England, my parents decided to get a place in Cheshunt. Situated on the outskirts of North London. We wanted to relocate in London but, as rents were high, my parents chose the suburbs of the big city.

I was sixteen at the time; it did not go down too well with me moving so far away from all my friends in Liverpool. I remember it like it was yesterday the words that my dad exclaimed to my mum. “Thank god we only have one child! Can you imagine if we had three or four and they were as rebellious as this one about moving?”

Let me tell you a little about myself. My name is Jack. I am 5’ 8”, brown hair and brown eyes. My hobbies are movies, reading and my main love is athletics. At my previous school, I was in the track and field team. I could say I was hoping to get a scholarship for one of the top universities; that is why I was so upset about coming down to the South-East of England. My teachers knew my training plan and what my dreams were. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying teachers down here aren’t good; it’s just they don’t know me and I don’t know them, as you will see later on.

At least we moved during the summer holidays, which made it easier than having to relocate during the middle of a school year. I suppose I can thank my parents for that, as my dad was living out of a suitcase in hotels until he found something to rent. So we could move during the summer when there is no school.

We relocated in August. I started packing everything with mum, while dad would help when he came home during the weekend. We were all surprised at how much stuff we had. You think you don’t have much until you start opening cupboards and emptying them. During the weekend of the move, Dad and I gathered all the boxes into a corner of the living room, for the removal men to quickly load them up along with the furniture onto their van.

We arrived at the new place on Monday at about lunch time. Mum and I hadn’t seen the place, as dad was viewing properties after work when he was staying down here. I think mum was not very impressed with the house he found.

With both her hands on her hips and with a look that could kill, she said to my dad, “I hope you’ve bought some paint because you’re going to need plenty of it.”

Dad smiled at mum and replied, “Don’t worry love, Jack and I will have the place looking like new by the end of next week. Why do you think I’ve got two weeks off from work?”

All I could say to that was two weeks of painting, with the rest of the summer holidays spent unpacking while putting things in their place. It looked like that was going to be another task, as the previous house we lived in was larger with more cupboard space.

Like my father predicted, it took us a couple of weeks of decorating to make the place look presentable. We were putting the last touches to the final room when mum walked in.

With a smile on her face mum praised us, “Now that is more like it. Jack, let your dad finish off. You can get cleaned up and ready for dinner.”